


Talking Peace

by Sabretoothgooselion



Series: Two Perspectives [1]
Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Fire Lord Zuko, Gen, I spent three days writing and editing this to make one joke, Post-Canon, Pure gen fluff, So is Kuei, Zuko is an Awkward Turtleduck, the real joke was me the whole time
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-19
Updated: 2020-06-19
Packaged: 2021-03-03 20:01:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,839
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24801265
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sabretoothgooselion/pseuds/Sabretoothgooselion
Summary: Just two absolute monarchs chilling in a gazebo, one table apart, trying to figure out what the hell to say.(Or: two perspectives on the formal beginnings of world peace.)
Relationships: Kuei & Zuko (Avatar)
Series: Two Perspectives [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1803946
Comments: 55
Kudos: 519





	Talking Peace

Zuko’s years abroad prepared him to take physical discomfort and assassination attempts in stride. They did not prepare him for the simple act of talking. 

This was how international politics worked: He said what he wanted. King Kuei said what he wanted. Then, people more experienced in the nuances of international law, trade, and negotiation took what they heard and made deals that the respective monarchs signed off on long before the actual peace talks took place. 

The big important thing that Zuko had to do on the day of the Four Nations Peace Summit was spend the day drinking tea with the Earth King without offending him. 

Looking back, Uncle tried to prepare him for this on the _Wani_ as well. He just hadn’t been willing to learn. Zuko wished his uncle had spelled it out for him using little words: a big part of being a Fire Lord in peacetime was sitting around making idle conversation without offending anyone. He would have developed an interesting hobby to talk about. Maybe he would knit or grow roses for show. More likely than not, he would have used much louder little words to tell his Uncle that he would _never_ be the Fire Lord if he didn’t capture the Avatar.

Back then, Zuko was arrogant enough to believe he could do the impossible. Now that he had done the impossible, he was terrified of messing up small talk. 

%%%%%%

Earth King Kuei was sick of weakness and lies. He ran himself ragged trying to read and understand every piece of correspondence that came through his palace. He spent hours talking with his advisors about the path the Peace Summit would take. The details left involved the timeline for reparations, the budgets for various rebuilding projects, the tariff changes that the Bei Fongs had asked for, and the launching of a cross-cultural exchange program.

When his advisors informed him that his role in the Peace Summit would be limited to sitting in a gazebo drinking tea with the Fire Lord, he felt weak. He didn’t feel much better when his bravest advisor reminded him that it was a bad idea for two absolute monarchs to be left to quibble over details, lest the world devolve into war again over import fees on exotic fruits. 

King Kuei’s bravest advisor did not know that 387 years ago, the Northern Water Tribe and the Independent City-State of Ba Sing Se went to war precisely because two absolute monarchs sat down and tried to come up with a trade deal about sea prunes. King Kuei was a scholar of history and did know this. He also knew that said war lead to the water tribes deposing their absolute monarch and incorporating a modified representative council system with an inherited title of Chief.

Not wanting to be deposed twice in one reign, he agreed to spend the Peace Talks drinking tea with the Fire Lord and talking about anything other than peace. Thirty years later, when he sat down to write his memoirs, King Kuei would realize that the ability to put one’s feelings to the side and do what needed to be done was its own kind of strength.

%%%%%

Fire Lord Zuko cast around desperately for advice before the peace talks. 

Aang sat on the terrace outside of his royal chambers, grinning his _I’m a thirteen-year-old and a monk and I saved the world without murdering your dad_ grin and told him to _be himself._ Zuko threw a 300-year-old vase off the balcony and blasted it apart with searing heat.

“Maybe not that version of yourself, though.” Zuko could destroy antiques all day and _Aang_ would still act like his best friend. Aang gave terrible advice.

He paced the chilly rooftop of the Southern Water Tribe Restoration Headquarters while Katara made intricate architecture out of ice. 

“I don’t know what you’re so worried about.” She adjusted the sparkling nose of an otter-penguin carving around the signage. “King Kuei is nice. Even you would have trouble pissing him off.”

Zuko was confident that he could piss anyone off. He had a record of assassination attempts to prove it. 

A month later, Sokka rolled his eyes at him as they saw the last troops off the docks of Yu Dao. 

“Just don’t start out with ‘Zuko here’ and you’ll be fine.” Zuko cringed at the memory and made a mental note to add that to his conversation cards. The mental notes and conversation cards were quickly stacking.

%%%%%

Fifty years later, Kuei’s long-awaited published memoirs would state that he found a firm resolve within his heart as his procession made its way to Gaoling. They would say that as he looked into the eyes of a little boy who gazed at his carriage with awe, he saw a child’s face shadowed by the grief of a lifetime of war. This sight made him promise to himself that for as long as he reigned, that child would live in a nation at peace. By then, Kuei would have forgotten what he spent the carriage ride doing or thinking about, but he felt like it fit thematically with his life story.

In fact, the 52nd Earth King _(long may he reign)_ spent most of the journey thinking about his next bath and reading over minutes of meetings that he hadn’t been able to attend. As the carriage began to approach Gaoling, he practiced his small talk with Bosco. Bosco was _excellent_ at small talk. He gnawed the meat off an ostrich-horse leg, entirely comfortable with all of Kuei’s conversation card topics. He never took offense and occasionally responded to Kuei’s prewritten charming comments with an approving burp.

Kuei regretted starting his studies of the Hundred-Years-War from Sozin’s Comet. It turned out making history left very little time for reading it. What he knew about Fire Lord Zuko came down to this: He helped conquer Ba Sing Se for Fire Lord Ozai and tried to kill the Avatar. A few months later, he turned on Fire Lord Ozai and helped train the Avatar to retake Ba Sing Se and overthrow his father. The overall impression he got was that the new Fire Lord was fickle in his loyalties and prone to deposing other rulers. 

Avatar Aang had assured him that Fire Lord Zuko was committed to ending the war. His advisors had warned him to avoid all sensitive topics during the Teatime of Peace, just in case. Sensitive topics included the fact that the Fire Lord had helped conquer Ba Sing Se, the fact that the Fire Lord had tried to kill the Avatar, anything to do with the Fire Lord’s family, and the fact that he had betrayed said family for the Avatar. 

Nobody seemed to have any suggestions about what he should talk about instead.

%%%%%%

Zuko’s stylist dug his hairpiece into his topknot, managing to connect solid gold with the _one itchy spot on his whole head._ Toph laid on the floor in his dressing chambers in Gaoling, refusing the ushering-out that so many of his personal attendants had offered _(“are you afraid that I’m gonna see the Fire Lord’s fiery parts? Hello? I’m_ blind _!”)_.

“Who do you know that’s good at politics? Be like them.” Toph spat a cherry pit out the window, aiming for the interior of her mother’s hairpiece below. At least, she hoped it was her mother. From two stories up, she just knew that the head-shape in her seismic sense went up far enough to indicate extreme importance.

Zuko frowned at his reflection in the mirror. “Azula was always a people person.”

The servants froze in a symphony of skyrocketing heartbeats. Toph spat again. 

“Maybe think of someone you know that’s good at politics and bad at murder.” 

Zuko looked out at the gardens, which were quickly filling up with _the most influential people in the world._ It was time to go. He couldn’t think of anyone that fit both of those categories.

%%%%%% 

The grand doors of the Bei Fong Estate opened up to reveal the grand gardens of the Bei Fong Estate. Lao Bei Fong bowed as Earth King Kuei stepped out and gave his best regal wave. The crowd of advisors that kept the Earth Kingdom and the Fire Nation running bowed, applauded, and cheered to varying degrees of appropriateness. The appropriateness tended to hinge on whether they were going for a promotion or had started drinking at breakfast.

Drunk and sober advisors alike were seated at long tables forming an aisle through the garden. At the end of the aisle sat the extremely gaudy gazebo that the rulers were supposed to sit under all day. Kuei thought this must be what a bride felt like on her wedding day. He regretted that thought as his jaw clamped shut on an entirely inappropriate giggle. He would have to tell Bosco about it later. Right now, he had to be a beacon of strength to his people.

Kuei was certain that a real beacon of strength wouldn’t have some kind of pebble rattling around in his hat.

%%%%%%

The Earth King was already introduced and seated by the time Zuko was announced. The top of his head was itching fiercely and _his brain was shorting out._ He strode through the garden, waving and praying his smile looked more like his uncle’s knowing expression and less like Azula on a new medication.

The only conversation card he could remember as approached the table was _don’t start with “Zuko here.”_ By the time he got to the gazebo, his palms were sweating. What was he supposed to say first instead? Someone had surely told him at some point. He knew he had memorized a card about honor and locations and auspicious days that he had now utterly forgotten. 

He was going to be so uncivilized that he spiraled the world back into war. He knew it. His mouth opened and formed words and put those words in the air entirely without his consent. What came out was not _Zuko here._ It was arguably worse. 

“It is I, Zuko.” 

%%%%%%

Kuei’s good friend the Avatar had provided him with a traditional Fire Nation greeting, ostensibly to smooth over any rough edges as they began their day-long Teatime of Peace. As the Fire Lord spoke, Kuei remembered that the Avatar was 113 years old and was privately glad he didn't go first. There was no telling how such a tempestuous ruler would have responded to _Flameo, Hotman!_

Of course, not going first meant he had to go second. Going second meant that once the Fire Lord said something, he had to respond. Responding meant that he had to say the right thing in response to the thing that was just said, and Kuei had _no idea what to say._ He guessed.

“It is I, Kuei.”

The Fire Lord smiled at him. He smiled back.

The Four Nations Peace Summit began with two absolute monarchs beaming at one another, each privately astonished that they had gotten the first part right.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading, please review!


End file.
